Original correspondence consists of one letter each to Peter Pringsheim (1912); Joseph Koeth (1928); and A. Sommerfeld; as well as six letters to Ernst Stern (1907-1908). A handwritten 1933 letter from Fritz Haber to Chaim Weizmann in Mannern, Switzerland (6 pages) is available as a photocopy only. Also included is a typescript by Hans Schaeffer on Jews in Breslau (photocopy), Die soziale, politische und religioese Stellung der juedischen Familien in Breslau um die Jahrhundertwende 1900. The typescript is part of a letter by Hans Schaeffer to Johannes Jaenicke, also in the collection.

The collection consists primarily of the author's unpublished manuscripts and songs (set to music); printed texts of plays, short stories, essays and other literary works; material relating to several organized attempts to ban The merchant of Venice from the NYC public school curriculum; personal documents and correspondence; newspaper clippings; and other material utilized as sources for his writings. The correspondence is primarily with publishers and Emanuel Neumann and relating to Zionism in general.

It also contains a detailed record, consisting of letters, a dated handwritten account, and news clippings, of the 1927 Zionist Convention in Atlantic City, centering on an internal schism as to the competence of the Lipsky administration, as well as some follow-up material in 1928. Prominent in these papers is correspondence with Louis D. Brandeis; also represented are Henrietta Szold and Chaim Weizmann.

The collection represents the papers of Morris David Waldman (1879-1963), a rabbi, social worker and communal leader, who was appointed executive secretary of one of the main Jewish defense organizations, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), in 1928. The executive secretary had top executive function at the organization and was in charge of working out and implementing the organization’s projects and policies regarding monitoring the civil and human rights of the Jews, and intervening on behalf of the Jews both in the U.S. and abroad. In 1942, Waldman was promoted to executive vice-president, a position he held until his retirement in 1945. The Morris Waldman Files relate to all of Waldman's activities as acting executive secretary and vice-president of the AJC.

The collection has been arranged according to the following broad subject areas: personal affairs; speeches, sermons, and articles, both manuscript and published; the Free Synagogue in New York City; the Jewish Institute of Religion; American Jewish affairs; relations between the Jewish and non-Jewish communities; New York City affairs; United States affairs; the press (both Jewish and non-Jewish); world affairs; the American Jewish Congress and World Jewish Congress; refugees; Zionism; Palestine and Israel; arts and letters; and individual corrspondence of a general nature.